Help

No account yet?
Registering is free, easy, and private.
Discuss in the forum, contribute to the Encyclopedia, build your own MyAnime lists, and more.

The Click

May 17th - 23rd

by Brian Hanson, May 17th 2008

Before we begin with the usual craziness that The Click has become renowned for over the years, I just want to say "Thanks!" to everybody who wished me well regarding the disappearance of Bat: The Cat last week. Bat: The Cat was recently spotted around the neighborhood, so it'll hopefully not be too much longer before he wanders either back home or into the clutches of one of my wonderful neighbors. You guys are great. Guys? Guys and gals. I'm sure I have one, maybe two female readers. Maybe.

Macross Plus
(Sci Fi)Monday May 19 11:00pm - Episode 2 "Part 2"

Shock of shocks! Macross Plus is my Click Pick yet again! Did I mention how terrific this show was last week? How smart and taut the script is? How the animation sizzles and pops in the right amounts? How superbly great Yoko Kanno's seminal musical score is? Yes? Okay.

Right, so. Apparently last week's episode WASN'T a recap, rather it was the second half of an hour-long episode that, in Japan, contained a recap of the entire "Soul Society" story arc. My apologies to those that might've since skipped out and thereby missed the grand denouement of the entire Soul Society shenanigans. This week, though! New bad guys abound, and Ichigo and the others do stuff that is related to them in some way.

Light endures quite a bit of difficulty in keeping up appearances as his two alter-egos undergo harsh scrutiny from the calculative Near. What the hell is up with the names in this show, anyway? Not even Thomas Pynchon can fully get away with giving his characters goofy names.

In this conveniently-timed two-part episode, Yuri sets out to investigate a series of brutal slayings that are attributed to a man he believes is incapable of such carnage. Such benevolence! If only our monarchies were spearheaded by boyish teenagers who are frequently given swirlies.

Somebody in the forums last week made a good point about Shin Chan's "lousy" timeslot: It's been well documented that really nothing on Saturday nights works well for Adult Swim, so it's all pretty much irrelevant. So, watch as Shin Chan drops his pants and talks about bowel movements! And buy the DVD while you're at it, too.

Today's Speed Grapher involves that most time-honored of family traditions: marriage. Or rather, arranged marriages in the interest of commerce and consolidating wealth and power. You know, like corporate mergers, privatized health care, and charging your friend twenty bucks a week to sleep on the couch.

Ha ha, "Mortal Combat." Hilarious. Remember when Mortal Kombat was the Grand Theft Auto of its day? All gaining controversy and notoriety, with Hollywood both anxious and eager about its aggressive popularity and cash-producing properties? Now, it's but a relic, a reminder of times where chunky sprites tearing out tiny red chunks of each other was enough to launch a congressional investigation. Anyway! Street Fighter II: V is on the air in Canada this week, and Ryu and Ken and Bison and the others fight each other for hopefully noble reasons.

Masane can seemingly take the stress and pain of the Witchblade no more, and threatens to destroy it once and for all - even if she must be destroyed along with it. I don't really have a joke here, so feel free to make one up on your own.

Axel frees his pal Jaden from the clutches of the so-called Supreme King, but all is still not well within the hallowed halls of the Duel Academy. Ailments, misery, and card-battling of the highest degree abounds!

MOVIES/FEATURES

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
(Encore Action)Tuesday May 20 5:15am

Jin-Roh brings an often-seen but much-needed air of quality to round out this week's lineup of solid shows. Also, Karas: The Prophecy and Eiken are on this week, somewhere. But I'm not going to talk about them because both my shrink and I agree that it hurts me inside. Although you can probably guess where they're showing, as well as when if you're especially curious.

I'll be around next week, of course, maybe with something astoundingly creative! Or not! Bye!

Travel back in time (and maybe have your gender swapped) to seven different periods of Japanese history, all from the comfort of your couch.― The history of Japanese civilization is expansive, predating the Common Era by 10,000 years (the Jomon period). There's much more ground to cover compared to what kids get in U.S. history classes in high school, which rarely cover anything before the Boston T...

Junji Ito's death-stench horror gets the deluxe treatment with a new hardcover omnibus, but the subject matter might not work for everyone.― Junji Ito is inarguably one of the masters of horror manga, utilizing both horror (physical revulsion) and terror (psychological reaction) to create gut-churning tales of the world gone mad. To a degree, he carries this out in his two-volume series Gyo from 200...

Voice actor/director/professional Dungeons & Dragons player Liam O'Brien returns to the podcast after a 5-year hiatus to discuss his roles in Fate/Zero and Sailor Moon, along with the landscape for anime voice acting now and what it's like to be Gollum.― ANNCast Episode 234: Podcastoes O'Brien Get the Flash Player to see this player. Voice actor/director/professional Dungeons & Dragons player Liam ...

If you went to an anime convention this summer or have used the internet lately, you may notice anime fans seem to have fallen in love with Steven Universe. Why? Because the show loves them right back.― If you've been to an anime convention in the past year, you've probably seen colorful, gem-studded cosplay like this filling the hallways. Photo credit links: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom...

If you've got questions for the director of the high-flying fantasy series The Pilot's Love Song, we've potentially got answers for you!― We've been given the opportunity to interview The Pilot's Love Song director Toshimasa Suzuki, and we need your help! NISA, who will be releasing the fantasy action drama The Pilot's Love Song on bluray September 22nd, asked for fan questions for Mr. Suzuki, whos...

Bee-Train's 2001 girls-with-guns classic returns on Blu-Ray, and holds up surprisingly well, despite some mediocre animation.― Not all older series deserve the Blu-Ray treatment. For some it is because the show just isn't as iconic as people might like to think, while for others it's because the quality was never BD worthy in the first place. Noir, fortunately, does hold up well enough that its tran...

Egypt Arc is JoJo in peak condition, as memorable and engaging an adventure as you could hope for. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is back.― When we last left our heroes, they'd just arrived on the shores of Egypt, escaping the literal jaws of defeat in order to finally save Jotaro's mother. The journey there had been a lengthy and sometimes inconsistent one, with their various adventures indeed being plen...

The creator of the hit manga, recently adapted into a popular anime series, talks about her inspirations, how she got her start, and what it's like to watch your manga become a TV show.― As you might guess from the story, the main character of the story is a high school roughneck named Ryu Yamada. Yamada meets cute, quiet, and studious Urara Shiraishi, who is his complete opposite in almost every wa...